Apr 11, 2023 (Nanowerk Spotlight) Flexible electronics, which can maintain their functionality under various conditions such as bending, rolling, folding, or stretching, have seen significant advances in recent years. These electronics have expanded into a wide range of applications, including flexible sensors for monitoring physical and chemical changes, energy harvesting...
Stripes within crystals hint at behavior of electrons in quantum systems
Apr 10, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Hidden stripes in a crystal could help scientists understand the mysterious behavior of electrons in certain quantum systems, including high-temperature superconductors, an unexpected discovery by RIKEN physicists suggests (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, "Correlation-driven electronic nematicity in the Dirac semimetal BaNiS2"). The electrons...
How artificial intelligence can improve protein detection
Apr 10, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Small proteins play a critical role in the regulation of immune response, inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. In order to better detect and study them, scientists at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Science of Light have combined one of the most effective microscopy methods, called iSCAT, with...
Scientists map gusty winds in a far-off neutron star system
Apr 10, 2023 (Nanowerk News) An accretion disk is a colossal whirlpool of gas and dust that gathers around a black hole or a neutron star like cotton candy as it pulls in material from a nearby star. As the disk spins, it whips up powerful winds that push and...
Researchers use artificial intelligence to hunt for human intelligence
Apr 10, 2023 (Nanowerk News) The brain is a wonderful, mysterious thing: three pounds of soft gelatinous tissue through which we interact with the world, generate ideas and construct meaning and representation. Understanding where and how this happens has long been among neuroscience’s fundamental goals. In recent years researchers have...
Single molecule studies of quantum dot
Apr 10, 2023 (Nanowerk Spotlight) The research groups of Prof. Ying Hu and Prof. Preston Snee of the UIC chemistry department have reported single molecule studies of energy transfer using a quantum dot donor with an organic dye acceptor. Semiconductor quantum dot-dye conjugates such as shown in Figure 1(A) are...
Modeling longer-lived holes in silicon quantum dots
Apr 10, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A theoretical model developed by three RIKEN physicists for optimizing semiconductor nanodevices will be helpful for scaling up quantum hardware (Physical Review Letters, "Charge-noise-induced dephasing in silicon hole-spin qubits"). An electron trapped in a semiconductor device offers a promising building block for future quantum computers....
Gravitational waves could indicate transition to strange quark matter
Apr 10, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Telltale signatures in gravitational-wave signals from merging neutron stars should reveal what happens to matter at the extreme pressures generated during such mergers, calculations by RIKEN researchers predict (Physical Review Letters, "Merger and postmerger of binary neutron stars with a quark-hadron crossover equation of state")....
Engineered plants produce sex perfume to trick pests and replace pesticides
Apr 10, 2023 (Nanowerk News) By using precision gene engineering techniques, researchers at the Earlham Institute in Norwich have been able to turn tobacco plants into solar-powered factories for moth sex pheromones (Plant Biotechnology, "Tunable control of insect pheromone biosynthesis in Nicotiana benthamiana"). Critically, they’ve shown how the production of...
AI-powered tool predicts human immune responses to nucleic acid nanoparticles
Apr 09, 2023 (Nanowerk Spotlight) As new biomedical technologies approach clinical trials, comprehending their interactions with the human immune system becomes a paramount concern. Unwanted immune recognition can result in severe side effects, which could not only halt further development of the materials under investigation but also adversely affect the...